Football: ‘Swiss FA cannot influence Sion decision’

BERNE: Swiss Football Association (SFV) President Peter Gilleron was stunned by Fifa’s threat to suspend his country from international football. Gilleron said that Fifa was asking the SFV to break its own statutes by instructing it on how to deal with first-division club Sion, who signed six players in the summer and then fielded them despite being subject to a transfer ban. Fifa’s executive committee said that Sion must be punished with 3-0 defeats for every match in which any of the players were fielded, giving the SFV until January 13 to comply or else face an international suspension. Disciplinary hearings have been opened but Gilleron said that the SFV have ‘no influence’ over the tribunal.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2011.